A LION-SHAPED PARCEL-GILT SILVER PALANQUIN FINIAL(PALKI-BALLI KA AKHIR) Northern India, 19th century The terminal in the shape of a lion showing its fangs, naturalistically portrayed with large bulging eyes and lush mane, the bottom of cylindrical shape embossed with rosette heads and vegetal festoons, 34cm long. Provenance: from a diplomatic Greek private collection since the early 1970s. Similar to the previous lot, palanquin finials such as this would have embellished the dooli of important members of the royal family clan. Although this method of travelling was inherited in India by the Muslim dynasties, it soon became the preferred method, so much that even the French traveller Tavernier wrote in the 17th century: "He who desires to travel with honour in India, ought to take with him twenty or thirty armed men [...] who carry the palankeen." (Christiane Terlinden Serra, Mughal Silver Magnificence 16th - 19th century, Brussels, 1987, p. 71). In the same publication, the palanquin finials on figure 57 show a striking similarity to our lot, the main difference being the centre of production (Southern rather than Northern India), thus their more naive and caricatured look.